The dog discovers an ancient artifact at the nearby hill fort.
I've mentioned this before, but the thing I love most about this place is how it's just dripping with history. Really, you can hardly walk a mile in England without stumbling upon some archaeological ruin. There's a reason for that.
Today in my Norman class we learned that by the time of the first Viking incursions, around 800, most of the usable land was already taken. Imagine, a property shortage already! Those Anglo-Saxon property investors sure must have made a killing when the Vikings came, wanting semi-detached houses with three reception areas and an ensuite. And a garden just the right size to bury their hordes of danegeld. (Nowadays, of course, it takes a horde of danegeld just to buy a property here.)
On Sunday we walked to the Iron-age hill fort I'd heard about. Even though it's hardly a mile from my house, I'd never ventured there before. Sounds silly, but there are dozens of archaeologically worthy sites within an hour's drive, so I haven't even got round to the nearer ones.
But it was a lovely day for a walk to a multivallate hill fort, so we took the dog and risked our necks crossing the A 40. People from America imagine anything old must be heavily guarded, with steep admission and surrounded by a cyclone fence, but like most archaeological sites here, this one has nothing more than a sign directing you to pick up after your dog.
It's sort of a local dog hangout, with 26 acres of mostly open land surrounded by earthen ramparts you'd almost miss if you didn't know they were there. The land has been excavated twice, but yielded little in the way of artifacts. That's why they think it must have been occupied only during times of danger. "Terror alert Orange! Proceed to the hillfort! Bring enough food and water for a week, since FEMA can't be bothered to feed your sorry arses!"
The most interesting sights now are the huge old oak trees, probably planted in the seventeenth century, that surround the area. They vie with the ones in Sherwood Forest I saw recently for size and scruffiness. One has a brick "chimney" built within, though it's crumbled some since this website published these photos. A slab with the date "1900" was lying on the ground nearby, indicating the bricks were erected in the Edwardian period.
If you've read this far, you might want to see the photos, including the Google earth image.
